Create Hierarchical Address Books in Office 365

by ManU on February 25, 2014

The hierarchical address book (HAB)

The hierarchical address book (HAB) is a feature in Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Online (Office 365) and Microsoft Outlook that enables end users to browse for recipients in their Exchange organization using an organizational hierarchy. In most Exchange deployments, users are limited to the default global address list (GAL) and its associated recipient properties. Additionally, the structure of the GAL often doesn’t accurately reflect the management or seniority relationships among recipients in your organization. Being able to customize an HAB that maps to your organization’s unique business structure provides your users with an efficient method for locating internal recipients.

In a recent blog article, MS has informed that Hierarchical Address Books have arrived at Office 365 too. After reading the announcement, I have decided to play something around on the new stuff in Office 365 !!!

Create a distribution group that will be used for the root organization (top-level tier).

Create distribution groups for the child tiers and designate them as members of the HAB. Modify the SeniorityIndex parameter of these groups so they’re listed in the proper hierarchical order within the root organization.

Add organization members. Modify the SeniorityIndex parameter of the members so they’re listed in the proper hierarchical order within the child tiers.

For accessibility purposes, you can use the PhoneticDisplayName parameter, which specifies a phonetic pronunciation of the DisplayName parameter.

The following table shows all the required cmdlets to configure a HAB.

4. Create distribution groups for the other tiers in the HAB. For this example, we would create the following groups: Messaging, Infrastructure, Office 365. This example creates the distribution group Messaging. Likewise create other groups too

5. Designate each of the groups as members of the HAB. For this example, we would designate the following groups as being hierarchical groups: ExchangeOnline, ExchangeOnline.in, Messaging, Infrastructure, Office 365, Consultants, Architects, Administrators. This example designates the distribution group ExchangeOnline as a member of the HAB.

Remember to convert every groups you wish to be there as a Hierarchical Group listed in your Address Book

Set-Group -Identity “ExchangeOnline” -IsHierarchicalGroup $true

Set-Group -Identity “ExchangeOnline.in” -IsHierarchicalGroup $true

Set-Group -Identity “Messaging” -IsHierarchicalGroup $true

Set-Group -Identity “Administrators” -IsHierarchicalGroup $true

etc…

See how the PowerShell Output looks like:

6. Add each of the subordinate groups as members of the root organization. For this example, distribution groups Messaging, Infrastructure, Office 365 are added as members of the root organization ExchangeOnline.in in the HAB. This example adds the Messaging distribution group as a member of the ExchangeOnline.in root distribution group

7. Add each of the groups that are subordinate to the distribution group ‘Messaging’ as members of the group. For this example, distribution groups Architects, Consultants, and Administrators are added as members of the distribution group ‘Messaging’. This example adds the Architects distribution group as a member of the Messaging distribution group.

8. Set the SeniorityIndex parameter for groups in the HAB. For example, the Messaging group contains three child groups: Architects, Consultants, Administrators. Instead of having the groups listed in ascending alphabetical order, which is the default, the preferred sorting will be Administrators (SeniorityIndex = 100), Consultants (SeniorityIndex = 50), and then Architects (SeniorityIndex = 25). This example sets the SeniorityIndex parameter for the Administrators group to 100.

Set-Group -Identity “Administrators” -SeniorityIndex 100

The PowerShell Output Looks like as seen below:

9. Set the SeniorityIndex parameter for users in the HAB groups. For this example, the Administrators group contains three users already: UserX, UserY, and UserZ. Instead of having the users listed in ascending alphabetical order by default, the preferred sorting will be UserZ (SeniorityIndex = 100), UserX(SeniorityIndex = 50), and then UserY(SeniorityIndex = 25). This example sets the SeniorityIndex parameter for the users UserZ,UserY,UserX to 100.

Set-User -Identity “UserZ” -SeniorityIndex 100

Set-User -Identity “UserX” -SeniorityIndex 50

Set-User -Identity “UserY” -SeniorityIndex 25

See the PowerShell Output too:

How the HAB we made looks like?

So, it’s almost done, except the one which is how the HAB looks like in address book. Microsoft has clarified that it can be viewed through Outlook 2010/2013 only as of now (That means no OWA supported for the time being)

Are you ready to see the new addition in Outlook 2013? A new tab is added to the Address book !!!

The HAB is displayed on the Organization tab, similar to the following figure.

You can also review the hierarchy of display of Groups and Users as we set using SeniorityIndex in a previous step.

Hope, this will help you when you are in need of creating a Hierarchical Address book in your Exchange 2013 or Office 365 environments.